OUR INSPIRATIONS | Nicky Nodjoumi

Nicky Nodjoumi is a well-known Iranian artist whose work premiered in several prominent collections worldwide. Notable establishments such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London, the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, the National Museum of Cuba, as well as the Taymour Grahne Gallery have exhibited his pieces. In conjunction with his solo exhibition at Taymour Grahne Gallery in September 2013, his work was also a part of Iran Modern, which opened at the Asia Society in New York.

Nodjoumi received his education from notable institutions such as Tehran University of Fine Arts (BA) and The City College of New York (MA).

SAVAK

The first congress of writers gathered in that place so we could… Because we were students of art, we could go see what’s happening. I remember one of those sessions that this guy was there and about 40 of, other prominent Iranian writers were there. They were careful not to make noise because SAVAK secret police was there, too and they were, they were… It was a gathering against the regime but not openly, put it that way. So, I knew of him and I saw him but I didn’t like the, the thing that I was hearing about it. It was westoxication.

Marcos Grigorian

Then we had Marcos Grigorian which was an Armenian. He’s also studying in Italy. He was, he painted Auschwitz at that time. He was an Armenian kind of sympathetic to the Jewish and also to the Armenian in Turkey. He, he was kind of, did this because after genocide in Turkey but he was really up-to-date and he was the one who started Biennials in Tehran. By the time when the revolution happened, he had like five biennials. He was, he was very instrumental to establish that and that, that by itself, become really huge impact in Iranian art.

Eaten by a Pelican

He is with his parents in a little stream and one day he said to his mom, “I want to go out. I want to see the world.” Then, the mother said, “How could you? It’s not possible. There is no other world. This is our world. You have no choice. You have to stay here.” The black little fish said, “No, I want to go out,” and he’s coming out, and he goes to the ocean and he is confronted with tons of danger. And there was a lot of on the road, in the sea, confront –he gets away from a love… He goes to the ocean and he confronts a lot of dangers, a lot of big fishes, how to — he cheat them, how to get away from them, and finally, he was eaten by a huge, huge pelican.